to was the nation so we said two woodrow wilson's change of coursework the in the 20th century? always, there almost always is a populist dimension to progressivism. and the populism was in the idea -- presidency. the president would be the -- as andrew jackson said -- the only man elected purely by the entire american people and therefore he was above the separation of powers. he was above the checks and balances, it was the vox populi essence of populism. it was popular with people to have a president say, you are virtuous and i am the vessel into which your virtue is poured , and therefore, presidential-centric, the essence of progressivism, appealed to large numbers of people. no one ever went broke praising the virtue of the american people. >> why has congress subordinated itself? george: well, the presidents of both parties have been given by congresses of both parties, extraordinary discretion partly because there are only 535 members of the two houses of congress. and has been for many years. in the senate since the alaska and hawaii joined the union. but in that time s

woodrow wilson not the headline. this column mobbed the capital, guards powerless, hoodlums hurl caustic remarks at marchers. this paragraph, the lead has 17 superlatives the. the biggest crowd, the angriest mob, the most dutiful girls. it is terrific press but also look at the editorial cartoons. there is little pencil neck woodrow wilson thinking he gets the spotlight on the day of his inauguration but ta-da, there's a separatist literally stealing the spotlight from him. the 1913 march was sort of the turning point for the final push to actually get the amendment through congress. in addition to being a great publicity ploy it was a reintroduction of the federal amendment of the strategy. i'm going to race through a little bit of political history here. feel free to ask questions about it later because i'm going to go really fast. the original separatists, they were abolitionists. some of them came to suffrage because what they really wanted was abolition and could not get that done without the vote. there were pe

much of the vision for that role, a little brag here started with woodrow wilson. who served as president a century ago. wilson's words are on the wall. part of the quotes say this. it is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war. but the right is more precious than peace. and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts. for democracy, for the right of those who submit to short in their own government. for a universal dminian of right. but a concert of such -- at least free. that was wilson's vision a century ago. he tried hard. he died trying, literally. but a hundred years later, we're still struggling with the challenges that he raised. and at times like this, as the audience in this auditorium and online knows, this center and the chicago counsel had -- are needed more than ever to connect deep leadership. welcome to our panel today. especially to our dear friend and repeat presenter ambassador evoda dalder. i stayed with our former two-term member from texas and on the wall was evo dalder. and we have had a

much of the vision for that role, a little brag here, started with woodrow wilson, our 28th president, for whom this center is named, who served as president a century ago. downstairs in the memorial hall which you all passed through, wilson's words are on the wall. part of the quotes say this. it is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war but the right is more process than -- is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government. for a universal dominion of rights by such a concert of free people as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. that was wilson's vision a century ago. he tried hard he died try, literally. but 100 years later, we're still struggling with the challenges that he raised. and at times like this, as the audience in this auditorium and online knows, this center and and others ouncil are needed more than ever to connect deep scholarship and t

much of the vision for that role, a little brag here, started with woodrow wilson, r28 president, for whom this center is named, who served as president a century ago. downstairs in the memorial hall, which you all pass through, wilson's words are on the wall. part of the quotes say this, it is a fearful thing to lead these people into work, but the right is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we always carried nearest to our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority have a voice in their own government. for universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people as and i shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself, at last, free. that was wilson's vision a century ago. he tried hard. he died trying, literally, but 100 years later we are still struggling with the challenges that he raised. at times like this, as the audience in this auditorium and online knows, this center and the chicago council and cnas, forgot to introduce richard, and the trilateral commission, about to introduce richard, are n

food administration, a special wartime agency created at the request of woodrow wilson, to stimulate american food production and create surpluses for export to allies. food would win the war, became hoover's slogan. by the autumn of 1918, the usa had become a cornucopia, beyond which, british, french and italians could draw with increasing confidence. five days after the armistice in 1918, president wilson dispatched hoover to europe to take charge of food distribution to a continent careening towards disaster. by now, not only belgium was the nation at risk. at the end of world war i, famine, disease and revolution swept across most of europe. it threatened to sunder a civilization already traumatized by the war to end all wars. while wilson and other allied leaders struggled to draft a peace treaty in paris, hoover, as the director of relief and chairman of a new government agency called the american relief administration, organized the dispersement of food to hungry people, and helped, thereby, to quell the danger of communist revolution in central europe. in many places, conditi

in 1958, he published a book entitled "the ordeal of woodrow wilson," a remarkable account of president wilson's diplomatic struggles in paris in 1919. and of hoover's concurrent battles in paris as american relief administrator. that same year, 1958, at president eisenhower's invitation, hoover represented the united states at the brussels world's fair. people of belgium honor the man who had saved so many of their lives during the .eal of 1914 to 1918 he, in turn, reflected on that occasion about the historical significance of the crv. it had brought lasting benefits to the world. it had pioneered the methods of relief for great famines. it had developed a system for maintenance and rehabilitation of children during war and other upheavals. between 1959-1964, as hoover neared the age of 90, he published a four volume history of the american-led enterprises in compassion, as he called them, that had brought food relief to tens of millions of people in the era of the two world wars. he entitled his massive narrative "an american epic." he wanted his fellow americans to know the truth ab

we stand at the doorstep of another woodrow wilson, who teddy roosevelt tangled with. a man who said and was derided for saying he was too proud to fight vicious enemies in the world. obama emanates the same sentiment today. when he waselt, agitating for american involvement in world war i, he tried to lead the roosevelt division, which ultimately never happened. he wanted to lead the front. we must be awoken again. our educational institutions, our families, how critical that inca incapacity is. as i said, i have a policy chapter in the back of the book that talks about simple recommendations. it is not meant to be a carte blanche. i wrote about five simple things in every category that i think would go a long way to restore leadership in our country. i want to thank you for being here, for being in the arena in different capacities. i see people out here fighting for the things america represents. it is a difficult fight. it can be a demoralizing fight, but i would encourage you to go back to founding documents, historical speeches like this to be reminded of what ou

done by theas woodrow wilson foundation recently and discovered that if you give the same test to peopleere nativeborn americans only the citizens in one state were able to pass it, vermont. and 49 of the other 50 states, the average citizen without studying could not pass. there is no one way to solve this problem. when i try to do is this. i am trying to buy historic documents, the magna carta, the declaration of independence, the emancipation proclamation, and put them in places where people can see them. why is it so important to see the documents? facsimile but the human brain has not yet evolved to the point where looking at a computer screen document is the same as looking at the historic document. carta,see the magna which is on permanent display at the national archives, you are more likely before after you go to read it. the same thing is true in historic buildings. monument hadington earthquake damage i would put it up -- monticello needed some work, montpelier, iwo jima memorial. i said let me fix these up, i will pay for it, and maybe more americans will visit and if they vi

during that time, he was influenced by woodrow wilson.of the policies he implemented were those wer ii think inspired by a number of the policies woodrow wilson had tried but had failed to get through. for example the united nations was sort of a reflected the league of nations from the first world war. we know that he read some people in an admiring way like woodrow wilson. also being from western missouri, the frontier when he was growing up, he also had an affinity for andrew jackson. one of his favorite early presidents, because he was a president truman thought for all of the people, the common people and truman of course sort of filled that role in the 20th century although his policies and jackson's policies were different. fiven worked in the office to 60 week from when the library opened in 1957 until the middle of 1966. his health started declining then and he didn't continue to come to the library on a daily basis. harry truman died the day after christmas 1972. leftat time this room was the way it had been and it remained that

woodrow wilson as president personally negotiated the treaty with foreign powers. and-delivered the treaty to the senate, and asked for approval. he faced a strong opposition party. these two men hated each other, woodrow and cabot lodge. but they had different views on what the post war world should look like. >> an american i have remained all my life. i can never be anything else but an american. when i think of the united states in an arrangement like this, i am thinking of what is best for the world. >> he didn't make any accommodations with henry cabot lodge. he was not completely opposed to international activities, but he didn't want wilson to put his stamp on this. >> wilson thought, as president, he could dictate the policy. he thought he could go to the public, get public opinion behind it, and force his view on to the senate. that proved not to be the case. the senate debated it and debated at great length. the lack of compromise in the end brought the treaty down. it was one of those times when the senate was exercising its advice and consent prerogativ

laura: for more on today's devepmt, i spoke wit robin wright, fellow at the woodrow wilson center and writer for "the new yorker."id the prt says there are many options short of war with iran, but what are the options? robin: i think there are 4 fferent options. one is for the united states to impose new sanctions as the presidt suggested he is going to do, not that it will make a huge dhaference, but anything that chips away at iran's economy will be hurtful. he can go to the united nations and look for support in ndemning iran's role in this and getting countries who are signatories to the nuclear deal to rethink their positions, particular on sanctionsnd maybe the broader issue. it could involve itself in some kind of kinetic response. it can support the kingdom of saudi arabia if it decides to retaliate against iran.re laura: the sry of state is in riyadh now, but the saudis have invited international experts to find out who was behind the attack. which of those options most likely to you? robin: ihink for now, one other one, and that is cyber, to get at iran and get back at you i

hosted by the woodrow wilson center in washington, d.c., it is one hour.

for hoover, and just like for woodrow wilson and most western statesmen at the time, bolshevism was a symptom of people in distress. thus, fighting bolshevism itself was in fact humanitarian. now, hoover hoped that the a.r.a. example of its energy, efficiency, these posters were distributed in the tens of thousands across soviet russia, so the image of american benevolence is spread. he hoped that would serve to further discredit what he called the foolish soviet economic system, in the eyes of the soviet people, and perhaps serve to catalyze the inevitable political healing process. as i said a little earlier, and i am going to bring this up in a different context, soviet officials from lenin on down for were very aware of this. so they set up a hierarchial system of secret police minders that were sent from moscow into the provinces, and even down to the town and village level, to keep an eye on the americans, ostensibly to assist, but often times it ended up being obstruction or just getting in the way. local soviet officials also kept a close eye on the americans. this is in a pla

that, we did and that was woodrow wilson. >> okay, the vietnam war, let's talk about that for a moment the vietnam -- let me start with the korean war, the korean war, what prompted us to go to war and was there a declaration of war? >> that's where everything changed because this was -- few here might remember in the summer of 1950 north korea attacked the south, america and its allies responded and, again, so far so good and then harry truman the president, when are you going to go to congress for war declaration just as if audience member rightly said as fdr had done in 1942 and 1943 and truman who might otherwise love for many reasons, not all, said, i'm not going to go to congress to ask for war declarations because it's 1950, a lot of fights in congress, i have to run a midterm campaign this fall, all it's going to do allow problems for the administration, i'm just going to go ahead and send troops to defend south korea and i don't think anyone is going to object. >> something very interesting that why did he actually have the korean war in the sense of the north koreans invaded

from the woodrow wilson center in washington, d.c. >> good morning, welcome to we wilson center. i'm jane harman, president and c.e.o. of the wilson center, former nine-term member of congress, happy to be here, a place where we engage in bipartisan, civil conversation, deep research and active thinking about the future of our world. in that spirit, let me introduce

joining me now is jill dougherty, global fellow for the woodrow wilson center.l, thanks for being with us. how is this story affecting ukraine? how will the distraction hurt ukraine's ability to fight corruption? >> it's bad on many levels. ukraine has a long history of major corruption, no question. just the image of the country is out there with the word corruption. democratically, it will hurt president zelensky. it hurts him because he doesn't want to be drawn into something that has democrats and republican republicans he doesn't want to take sides. it weakens him domestically within ukraine because he looedd let's say, not forceful when he had the performance with president trump at the united nations. it makes it harder to do any deal with putin to solve and resolve the conflict in the ukraine. >> he is new to politics. he came from the world of acting. my, my, welcome to your new role. developments are fast and curious. the white house worked to limit access to president trump's conversations with foreign leaders, including, mr. putin. mr. trump, of cour

a footnote, hagel and max weber and woodrow wilson. so the united states has been moving down this path which would make reference to in fits and starts for an initial progressives through the new deal expansions, but the administrative state was not really institutionalized in any permit wait until the great society and its progeny. if all that time and until that time, america was centrally governed under the constitution but was administratively decentralized at the state and local level. when administration is nationalized it creates a new source of conflict between executive and legislative branches. so at first progressives like to look at the presidency. woodrow wilson, teddy roosevelt. and present pushed congress to expand administrative powers. congress was reluctant to do so. there remained at event of decentralized administration. but congress seeing the writing on the wall adapter. between 1968-1978, passed more regulatory legislation that in all previous history. delegating the numeral legislative powers in the form of bro

women, more than 5000 suffragists, participated in the march held the day before woodrow wilson's first presidential inauguration. i hope that you can see here, this is all the space that these women had to march up pennsylvania avenue. this photograph is actually digitized from a congressional hearing that was held after the march was over. the police really didn't do much to control the crowd. the suffragists could barely make their way through the crowds at points, and they faced verbal harassment and some instances of assault, as well, as they marched through this unfriendly crowd. the police argued there were just too many people, so they couldn't possibly keep the crowds back, but as you can see, there is plenty of room. they could have opened the way for these women to march peacefully for their rights. one of the women we know, who participated in the march is marie baldwin. she is a native american woman. we thought it was really important because many of the photographs that you see from the women's suffrage movement are primarily of white women marching, and protesting for th

. >> fdr was the assistant secretary of the navy and saw public opinion turned against woodrow wilsonsomehow he didn't manage wilson didn't manage to deliver the lasting peace that heo promised so that central idea was to set up a system of international institutions with the united nations that would make good from the first world war of the league of nations it's very important to him in these negotiations and with churchill and stalin with roosevelt it was absolutely essential that these international institutions would be set up to show that the war was worth all the sacrifices. >> i'm sure the british people were impatient for the united states to get into the war would you talk about that quick. >> from the first day that churchill enters ten downing street they can't do a very good english accent. i can do a good boris impression because i can ruffle my hair. [laughter] that back in 1940? apparently he does that before he speaks publicly i think it was the 14th of may and in modern british history the news from europe was disastrous and we were alone during the battle of britai

hosted by the woodrow wilson center in washington, d.c., it is one hour. good morning and welcome to the center. i hope you liked our movie and hope you like this event, chicago council engage in retreat, american views on u.s. foreign policy. i am jane harman president and ceo of the wilson center, member of congress and happy to be here at a place where we engage in bipartisan civil conversation, deep research into active thinking about the future of the worlworld into that spirit, lete introduce the fifth time that ivo dallder and the chicago council are here to release their survey of the american public opinion. it's a great partnership that we have in the prior report and it's an enduring alliance. it's also reassuring to me to learn the good news in this report that americans in huge bipartisan margins continue their support in an active u.s. role in foreign policy and world affairs. much of the vision for that role, to brag here, started with woodrow wilsobouguereau will ser 28th president for whom the sentry's name who served a century ago. downst

believed in woodrow wilson's ideas of international organization, in world war i the league of nationsld war ii truman was determined to make the new united nations work. truman went into the haberdashery business, which failed because there was a depression after world war i. after world war ii harry truman was careful to keep economic controls on the economy while the economy switched from a military to a civilian mode. there was no depression after world war ii. justice,so believed in the proper way to deal with enemies is to unfold them. is what he tried to do with germany and japan after world war ii, bring them into the society of nations. truman, getting back to a sense of justice, they set up the nuremberg trials to meet out legal justice to the leaders of nazi germany. he felt it wasn't right to just have vengeance after the war, the rule of law is very important. >> the socialist party essentially started here in milwaukee in 1897, under the leadership of victor berger. it took off from there. there were a number of factors that led to the formation of the socialist party her

by the way, a favorite movie of woodrow wilson.vie with both white and black actors in blackface. what has always been done, advance white supremacy at the expense of people of color. yellowface, "breakfast at tiffany's." buck teeth, slanted eyes. audience laughs. object of ridicule and mockery. whoever's in power in the case of western society often white spr supremacy, the rest of us marginalized, the people are color. why we're stuck. okay. all these liberals putting on blackface, brownface and conservatives don't seem to like black and brown people and we're stuck in the middle? what's going on? talking to a stylist at cnn. person of color. never occurred to put on blackface or brownface. me, too. never in my life. the fact justin trudeau did this as an adult has humility, apologizes, has a person of color, cabinet member, someone, a sikh or person who is black come up with him and address the issue head-on. it's an issue of white supremacy and as we see in america, seems we're very ufr knncomfortable tk about these issues. >>

in fact, woodrow wilson wrote a whole book about post-johnson impeachme impeachment empowering congress having all of these reforms to our political system. but nixon had tapes. he got busted for having the tapes. we had his voice. what's interesting to me is do we get donald trump's voice speaking to the ukrainian leader? or is it going to be a gabled transcript? what's the evidence going to be like? are we going to be able to lean forward and feel like we are watching or listening to, i mean, trump doing an extortion wrap on a foreign leader? that would be devastating if we have audio of this and biden's being invoked. >> we might get the answer to that as early as today. there may not be an audio, but a lot of people think that just seeing the transcript will be damning. what i think is so interesting, doug, is that the president how he changed yesterday. you know, up until now for three years, their tactic has been stonewall and make democrats go through the courts. but yesterday something shifted where the president for the first time at least that i can remember said, okay, we'll

. -- new the new nee support fromt got woodrow wilson. is and is not often come up -- if it is referenced to, it is as a friend of african-americans but he was a real supporter or giving a prop to the new negro movement. when he appeared before congress to ask her declaration of war, to go into the great war that killed whole generations of europeans, a war that the united states had stayed out of for so long, he famously declared the world must be made safe for democracy. african-americans responded, "uhuh, yes. starting here at home." this quote from william monroe trotter. the new spirit among the colored americans resisting attacks upon their lives is something for which president wilson is chiefly responsible. his reaffirmation of noble sentiment and making our boys fight under their inspiration has given birth to new spirit of manliness." african-americans served in the military. they helped achieve victory for the allied powers in france. voice -- dubois molded this idealism to the struggle at home. ofthis wonderful addition the gu

the president of the united states, the one in the center, woodrow wilson, the first southern born president since the civil war, born in stanton, virginia, comes to gettysburg. they call this a peace jubilee. and all across the battlefield are echoes of stories of valor, bravery, of heroism, of courage. of the union and confederate soldiers. one of which, i will give you an example. this is the governor of virginia. he is here 50 years later. william hodges man. and he gives a very typical reconciliationist address. "we are not here to talk about the origins of the war," he tells "we are here to talk about the battle." you have seen these images before. you can imagine what these union and confederate veterans would be saying to each other. this is probably the most iconic image of civil war memory. clasping hands across the area where they fought at pickett's charge 50 years ago is a reconciliation of the civil war. so, that war department era, that david blight reconciliation, devoid of causes, devoid of consequences, permeates america's interpretation of the civil war. it permeates ameri

michael oppenheimer is a professor of geosciences and international affairs at the woodrow wilson schooln university.ho he ad the chapter on sea level rise. professor oppenheimer, alwayu good to see ere on the newshour. let's dive right into the section th you authored. this prediction of sea level rise if current trends don't change seems incredibly stark. >> yes, well, sea level is rising, and it' as risin an accelerating pace, and the reason for that is-- you said it-- the greenla and antarctic ice sheets arsie lo isle faster and faster. they're dumping into the ocean and that's a major causeof sea level rise, and also behind that, largely, is human-caused warming of the earth. the second thing to be concerned about is that seae level ris projected to cause a large change in the frequency of occurrence of extreme water levelsest the coasts, and t are the things that cause big floods-- for instance, when a storm like hurricane sandy comes along, and there's a storm surge, if it's rise riding on top of a higher sea level, its just puse water to a higher level in the places and the third

like to who your response on how the laws change in response to history and how, especially in woodrow wilson's redefinition of how justice should be understood according to elements of high criticism that they morph as humans morphed rather than a timeless constitution, we should have timeless rights versus more malleable rights? >> you're getting pretty deep into constitutional interpretation. the cases i'm speaking about, a good example in 1983, excited marks versus chambers. they've been looking at the interplay of religion, there's a separation back. you can't endorse religion, they had a three-pronged test and in this case, in which chambers is state senator challenged the prayer at his state legislature. the supreme court said we are not going to focus on altitude. we will look at history and in 1774, there's kind of this long history of prayer so we will go ahead and allow thought. examine any of the principles, they just looked at the history. same thing happened in the cross tapered history is very valuable as i think you can all probably gathered from what's happening right now. my p

lightyear response on how to the laws change in response to history and how especially in light of woodrow wilson's redefinition of how justice should be understood according to subelements of activism that the law is more as humans morphed rather than if we have a timeless constitution we should have timeless rights versus more valuable rights. andrew: you are getting pretty deep into the constitution. the cases that i am speaking about a really good example is in 1983, the supreme court decided marsh versus chambers. historically this report is will been looking at the religion and governments and there's a separation there, you can't endorse religion, and a three prong test of the lemon test that they would like to use. in this marsh case in which ernie chambers challenged the prayers at his state legislature. the spring court said were not going to focus on all of that. were going to look at history and his 1934, the condo congress, says the long history of prayer since since they were going to go ahead and allow this. it didn't actually examine any of the principles. they just look to history.

this comes to us from the woodrow wilson center here in washington, d.c.bringing it to you live here on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> there's a widespread point today americans ready to retreat from the world, that the public wants u.s. repulsive to pull back but this is

i think the people who believe this naive notion, this woodrow wilson notion that we can make americaing it worse. all of these people wanted to topple saddam hussein, but guess what when we toppled saddam a hussein we got chaos and we got the rise of isis and eran got stronger. iran is more of a threat to the stability of the united to middle east now. these people are naive and they think we can recreate the world in our image and then everything will be fine and thomas jefferson will get elected in iran. what happens is it leads to chaos, more terrorism, and more of a breeding ground for terrorists. i think it valid philosophical debate here but i think actually the president instants are very good, because he comes from outside the swamp. the swamp in d.c. for foreign policy is republicans and democrats who believe we have to always occupied territory, we have to always occupy other countries, and somehow we can do nation-building but it's bankrupting us and you will hear the president say over and over again that we are wasting $50 billion a year in afghanistan that could be bett

that came out was belgian atrocities and the sinking of the lusitania. , andcolor perception woodrow wilson, that his wife we went to war -- that is why we went to war. germany did bad things at the beginning of the war that did not help popular opinion about them. basically a fight stage of civilization, that germany would invade and ruin that. draconian rules and militarism would sort of takeover. germany was seen as the bad guy by most of the allies and to -- nobody had much sympathy to the german plight. in the back. >> you made the point very well social interactions made it difficult for the pilots to talk about what they were going through which was the wrong strategy for getting them better. was there any society or any air force in world war i that did better? i'm thinking austria and germany, say with the legacy of sigmund freud or carl hugh. did they do better? mark: that is a good point. he is asking with the british social interactions and that he thinks of repression -- the repression, were there other countries that did a better job talking about what the men were going throu

. >>> the woodrow wilson center held this discussion on the release of the 2019 chicago council surveyhich gives a detailed look at the views americans have regarding foreign policy and international relations. this is an hour.

woodrow wilson was the only democrats to interrupt a gop sequence.next 36 years 1969, four democrats occupying the oval office. there was only one republican, eisenhower. from then on, the presidential pendulum has continued to swing regularly between the two parties. we will go to richard, joining us from ohio. ohio is still considered one of the home state of the presidents. caller: hello. remember our past history. we waited too long in world war ii until after the japanese attacked us at pearl harbor. we knew it was coming, but nobody believed it would happen. i think we are in the same situation today. i think history is about to repeat itself. we are not going to take any action until after we get attacked. ourink we have to maintain any belief of keeping conflict overseas and not let it come here to our country. host: thank you. guest: you are correct in saying we were slow to get in. ofgely, that was a result the very strong sense of isolationism that existed in the country. franklin roosevelt was trying to help the british through lease and

role, to brag here, started with woodrow wilsobouguereau will ser 28th president for whom the sentry's name who served a century ago. downstairs in memorial hall, wilson's word part of the quotes davis is a fearful thing to leave this great peaceful people into war, but the right is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts. for democracy, for the right of those that submit to authority to have a voice in their own government. for a universal opinion of rights by such a concert of three people to bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. that was the addition of century ago. he tried hard, die, die trying literally, but a hundred years later we are still struggling with the challenges that he raised and the audience in this auditorium and online does this send her into the chicago council are needed more than ever to conduct deep scholarship and leadership to the global challenges. so, welcome to the panel today. especially to our dear friend and presenter. i think i told you i was in brussels about a month ago and stayed with our current ambassador t